The McCracken County Lady Mustangs handed Lyon County its first loss of the season Tuesday night, shutting down the Lady Lyons 9-0 after a commanding third inning.
Lyon entered the contest with an unblemished 4-0 record after beating Ballard Memorial, Union County, Paducah Tilghman and Calloway County. McCracken on the other hand, remains undefeated with a 5-0 record after securing big wins over Madisonville-North Hopkins, Corbandale Community, Goreville and Trigg County.
It took a minute for McCracken to get off the ground, but once one at-bat connected, the Lady Mustangs were off to the races. That at-bat came courtesy of a single from Skylar Clark, turning into a 5-inning spurt to get out on top.
“That’s the way it’s been the first five games of this season,” McCracken County head coach Tony Hayden said on his teams hitting spree. “Tonight we hit the ball well and we hit the ball when we needed to with runners on base. The people that we needed to hit the ball well did just that, Addley Leidecker, Eastyn Walker, Olivia Lee, Macy Butler; those girls are the ring leaders of the team we had last year.”
After the single from Clark, a sac bunt from Lee pushed Clark one position closer. Consecutive singles from Butler and Ava Knight put the first two runs on the board, but that was just the beginning of the scoring action for the home team.
“It just takes two or three to really get it started,” Hayden said. “When we get this kind of effort from our veterans, it gets our younger kids involved and then everybody wants to hit.”
Another single from Walker pushed Knight to third and Leidecker knocked a single of her own to make it 4-0 with Knight advancing and Walker scoring on a passed ball at home. Kinley Dowdy would have the last laugh in the bottom of the third with a single of her own brought home Leidecker for the fifth run before a fly out in the following at-bat would end the frame.
Lyon County was close to finding their answer with their next at-bats when Jenna Coursey connected on just the second pitch of the inning for a single to get on base. A walk for Ava Prow would put a second Lady Lyon on with just one out on the board.
McCracken would lock in with the next two at-bats resulting in a ground out from shortstop to first and a line out at deep right field to end any potential of the Lady Lyons getting on the board.
“Lyon has a good team, they are going to create a lot of problems for teams over there in the second region,” Hayden said. “I like playing Jason Collins’ teams, they are always well prepared — I think we only saw one error all night.”
McCracken County got right back to business in the fourth with a pair of doubles from Lee and Knight to make it a 6-0 game and a walk for Knight in the bottom of the sixth would push Lilly Hamilton home, followed by a double from Leidecker would score the winning runs.
Addison Dudley earned the win for McCracken County from the circle, allowing two hits while walking three and striking out six on a 95-58 pitch-strike count and 26 batters faced. Ava Prow suffered the loss for Lyon, allowing 13 hits, nine runs, walked two and struck out one.
Up next, the Lady Mustangs will have their toughest test yet, as they are set to host South Warren (4-0) on Thursday night.
“We are going to have to play this well with what is coming our way on Thursday,” Hayden said. “And then we’ve got three big games over in Illinois. I set the season up like this early so we know where we stand and what we need to work on before we head to Huntsville for spring break.”
MCCRACKEN COUNTY 9, LYON COUNTY 0
LYNC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 1
MCCR 0 0 5 1 0 3 X — 9 13 0
2B: MC — A. Knight, A. Leidecker, O. Lee
TB: MC — A. Knight 4, A. Leidecker 3, O. Lee 3, A. Knight 2, E. Walker 1, K. Dowdy 1, M. Butler 1, S. Clark 1; LC — E. Brasher 1, J. Coursey 1
SB: MC — A. Knight
CS: MC — A. Knight
E: LY — M. Perry